memeorandum: Bush officials: Congress irrelevant on Iraq (William H. McMichael/Army Times)

6:35 PM ET, March 5, 2008

Top Items:

Clinton Hints At Sharing Ticket With Obama — NEW YORK (CBS) ― Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton hinted at the possibility of a Democratic “dream ticket” with Sen. Barack Obama. — Speaking on “The Early Show” on CBS, Clinton said “that may be where this is headed, but of course we have to decide who is on the top of the ticket.”

Discussion: The Opinionator, Donklephant, Wake up America, Buck Naked Politics, culturekitchen, Taylor Marsh, Macsmind, Vox Popoli, Connecting.the.Dots, Vodkapundit and Chronicle of the Conspiracy

Carrie Budoff Brown / The Politico:

Obama: ‘Premature’ to talk joint ticket — Speaking to reporters on his plane before leaving San Antonio for Chicago, Sen. Barack Obama hinted at taking a tougher line against Clinton in the coming weeks, telling reporters that she must back up her experience argument with details, my colleague Carrie Budoff Brown reports.

Discussion: The Page, Political Machine, Roger L. Simon, The Carpetbagger Report, Hot Air, Spin Cycle and The Debatable Land

Adam Nagourney / New York Times:
Clinton Says Her Campaign Has ‘Turned a Corner’

Discussion: DownWithTyranny!, USA Today, The Swamp, Daily Kos, Washington Post, NY Daily News, Boston Globe, The Moderate Voice, Fact Checker, Taylor Marsh, Balloon Juice, John McCain 2008, The Reaction and The Carpetbagger Report

The Politico:
Dems face a long brawl

Discussion: The Strata-Sphere and The Swamp

Big Tent Democrat / TalkLeft: Working the SNL Refs

Mike Allen / The Politico:
Clinton sees ticket with Obama

Discussion: Comments from Left Field, Wonkette, Preemptive Karma, TownHall Blog, PunditGuy and Wake up America

Carpetbagger / The Carpetbagger Report:
When you get hit with a kitchen sink, it hurts

Discussion: Hot Air, About.com US Politics, Left in the West and JammieWearingFool

Satyam / Think Progress:

Bush: McCain ‘Is Not Going To Change’ My Foreign Policy — At the White House today, President Bush threw his support behind Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). In a press conference after a private lunch, a reporter asked the duo how McCain would “make the case that you're going to provide the change that the voters seem to want.”

Discussion: Big Brass Blog, The Newshoggers, The Seminal, The Carpetbagger Report and Middle Earth Journal

James Fallows:
More on Clinton, Obama, and the OODA loop

Discussion: The Politico, Washington Monthly, The Carpetbagger Report and Prairie Weather

Amanda / Think Progress:
Bush tap dances while waiting for McCain.

Discussion: The Trail, MoJoBlog, MSNBC and Shakespeare's Sister

Kombiz Lavasany / Democratic National Committee:
McCain / Bush Press Conference

Discussion: Crooks and Liars

Jill Zuckman / The Swamp:
A little soft shoe for McCain as Bush cools his heels

Discussion: Jonathan Martin's Blogs and Firedoglake

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:

CHILL OUT....The hot topic of conversation right now is the proposition that a long, drawn-out Democratic primary runs the risk of destroying the party and putting John McCain in the White House. So for the good of the country, Hillary should withdraw. — Now, this might be true.

Discussion: Ross Douthat, The Newshoggers, The Corner, Brendan Nyhan, Blogometer, Megan McArdle, JustOneMinute, The New Republic, The Daily Dish, Lawyers, Guns and Money and democracyarsenal.org

Matthew Yglesias:
Party Destruction — Does the prospect of a long …

Discussion: The New Republic

Hillary Clinton / CNN:

Obama camp: What's Clinton hiding' — (CNN) - Barack Obama's campaign took fresh aim at Hillary Clinton Wednesday for refusing to release her tax returns, asking in a memo circulated to reporters, “What does Clinton have to hide?” — “In the face of her unwillingness to release her tax returns …

Discussion: The Newshoggers, Riehl World View, The Page, Redstate and PoliGazette

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:

Obama Camp, Getting Down To Business, Slams Hillary On Tax Returns — Obama campaign advisers are already making good on promises to confront Hillary much more aggressively on new fronts, hammering her on a conference call over her failure to release her tax returns.

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blogs, The Politico, TalkLeft, Spin Cycle and The Carpetbagger Report

David Weigel / Reason Magazine:

It's Rush Wot Won It — In the days running up to these last primaries, Rush Limbaugh told his national audience of conservatives to vote in the Democratic race. … It turned into a pretty hot meme in Texas, and on Monday, while Rush was out, guest host Mark Davis scored an interview with Bill Clinton.

Discussion: Outside The Beltway, The Impolitic, Wake up America, Matthew Yglesias, The Daily Dish and Houston Chronicle

Tom Bevan / Real Clear Politics:

Was It Rush? — I've been doing a number of radio interview this morning and the question keeps popping up: did Rush Limbaugh put Hillary over the top in Texas? Some quick, back-of-the-envelope math based on the exits shows: — Republicans represented 9% of the electorate in Texas.

Discussion: Hot Air, Power Line, Washington Post, The Radio Equalizer, alicublog, Below The Beltway and Don Surber

Atrios / Eschaton:

Nasty — Sadly, I agree with Chris that this is going to get nastier. The campaigns and candidates themselves may not get nasty, but I get the sense that supporters of the various candidates are getting angrier at the other camp. Sure a lot of this is just relatively harmless virtual …

Discussion: Open Left

Kevin Drum / Washington Monthly:
VITRIOL....Atrios: … This has sort of taken me by surprise too.

Discussion: TalkLeft

Gallup:

Gallup Daily: Clinton 48%, Obama 44% — Based on polling conducted March 2-4, 2008 — PRINCETON, NJ — Hillary Clinton has moved ahead of Barack Obama in national Democratic nomination preferences, 48% to 44%, in polling conducted Sunday through Tuesday.

Discussion: Weekly Standard, Open Left, The Strata-Sphere, Below The Beltway, MyDD, Donklephant and TPM Election Central

Amanda / Think Progress:

Bush May Fire CentCom Chief Adm. Fallon, Replace With Commander More ‘Pliable’ To War With Iran — Defense Secretary Robert Gates has called CENTCOM commander Adm. William Fallon “one of the best strategic thinkers in uniform today.” Fallon opposed the “surge” in Iraq and has consistently battled …

Discussion: Swampland, Sadly, No! and Hullabaloo

Brad / Sadly, No!:

Thanks for publishing this moron, WaPo — Ugh. Charlotte Allen's chat over at the WaPo is bloody painful: … In other words: sure, more women are graduating from law school and medical school, but they'll only comprise the stupid doctors and lawyers. — In other news …

Discussion: Shakespeare's Sister, Think Progress, Lawyers, Guns and Money and Feministing

Laura / War and Piece:
The Post Hides Behind Allen's Knickers

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The XX Factor

Gateway Pundit:

CAPTURED FARC COMPUTERS NAME BARACK OBAMA (Updated) — Captured FARC documents name Obama — Dead terrorist Raul Reyes had information that FARC was meeting “gringos” about Obama. — The computers captured this past weekend by Colombian soldiers at the campsite of FARC #2 Raul Reyes contained loads …

Discussion: The Jawa Report, Fausta's blog, The Huffington Post, Atlas Shrugs, The Campaign Spot and Counterterrorism Blog

Frank James / Baltimore Sun:

Fla. and Mich. guvs: Seat our delegates — Forget the fact that the state legislatures in both Michigan and Florida were forewarned that if they moved up their states' primary dates their states would be penalized by the Democratic and Republican National Committees.

Discussion: TPM Election Central, Marc Ambinder, Ben Smith's Blogs, Below The Beltway, BobKrumm.com and Donklephant

Greg Sargent / TPM Election Central:

Here's A First Look At Third-Party Group's Ad Against McCain — We've just obtained a copy of the new ad that the 501c4 issue-advocacy group Campaign to Defend America is running against John McCain in Ohio and Pennsylvania. — It says that McCain offers more of the “McSame as Bush,” …

Discussion: Gateway Pundit, protein wisdom, Lonewacko, Ben Smith's Blogs, Think Progress, Alternate Brain, Cliff Schecter and Hold Fast

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Rep. Ellison: Clinton Trying To Reap Benefit Of Obama-Muslim Smear — The Clinton campaign flatly denies any hand in the Obama-is-a-Muslim smear campaign that has bubbled beneath the media surface, but it is more than willing to take advantage of it, says the lone Muslim member of congress.

Discussion: MoJoBlog